Chapters (57)
- Cover
- Doctor Aphra
- DRAMATIS PERSONAE
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- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
You had twenty years, Obi-Wan. Hiding the boy in the one place I would never return to was cunning, but in this, you are a failure.
APHRA (narration):
Even more interesting? Apparently…there was much more to this boy than being a modest farm kid with a weird talent for blowing up Imperial superweapons.
Also? Darth Vader himself had a connection to dusty ol’ Tatooine.
More information I could use.
Before I could ruminate further, he emerged…
DARTH VADER:
Aphra. I am done. There is nothing here.
APHRA:
Great. Where do you want the bomb?
APHRA (narration):
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention? I always have a bomb on me for situations like this. And in this case, I’d broken out my most purely powerful detonator, featuring my own special modifications to make it even more…explode-y.
Aphra detonates her bomb, destroying the structure.
APHRA:
Farewell, boring beige structure!
She uses a handheld scanner, which returns a result, and she announces:
APHRA:
Molecular purge is good. As far as forensic science can tell, no one was here, ever.
DARTH VADER:
As I said.
APHRA:
Now what, Lord Vader?
DARTH VADER:
I must return to my duties. I will have a task for you soon enough. It is a matter of some delicacy.
SCENE 14
EXT. ROCK CLIMBING FORMATION. UNIVERSITY OF BAR’LETH. DAY. FLASHBACK.
APHRA (narration):
“Delicacy,” huh? I mean, we’d already reactivated one of the most dangerous weapons in the galaxy, stolen a precious cybernetic womb from a pissed-off alien queen, and journeyed to the homestead of a possibly Force-sensitive kid who blew up the Death Star.
But now things were about to get delicate? Okay.
Despite his penchant for dragging me to musty, burnt-out locations, my new boss continued to be a source of constant fascination.
He was so often secretive, mysterious—downright cryptic.
I get wanting to build your own off-the-grid droid army after you’ve been reprimanded at work and are trying to put all kinds of secret plans in motion and show the Emperor that you’re still a boss and should be treated as such. I didn’t… quite get chasing an ex-farm-kid—
Force-sensitive or not—through the most desolate places in the Outer Rim.
But like I said: I was learning to be strategic with my questions. Every single scrap of information I was gathering would be important eventually. When I start out on one of my legendary adventures, I don’t tend to know how it’s all going to turn out—but I do know that I’ll find my door. There’s always that moment where it all comes together, the picture coalesces—and I see, with blazing clarity, where to slide my metaphorical knife so it will hit home.
It was fascinating to observe the Dark Lord’s change in moods—